Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks is dazzling after its spring clean

The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci (Photo: National Gallery)

What a relief that the newly-cleaned Virgin of the Rocks, by Leonardo da Vinci, hasn't been scrubbed into the flat, bright, lurid state that modern restoration often brings.

I went along this afternoon to the National Gallery to see the picture being unveiled and was deeply moved. Far from being flattened, Jesus's plump arms (in the bottom right corner) look wonderfully three-dimensional, with the squeezed folds of fat bulging towards the viewer. The flesh colours, too, are deep and original, the tone like a thin film of celluloid.

The subtle depth of field – that has been cleaned away on Holbein's The Ambassadors in the next door gallery – survives intact. The thin veil of gauze on the infant John the Baptist (to the left of the picture) stands proud of his skin by the thinnest, most convincing of margins.

The dark blue folds of the Virgin's skirt, the gold cloak around her waist… they all deserve close attention; and the brilliance of execution backs up the new theory that it is all da Vinci's work, not a co-production by him and several assistants, as previously thought.

A cleaning like this gives you a chance to look at a familiar picture close up and for an extended period; it also meant I approached the picture full of ingrained scepticism about over-cleaning. What a pleasure to be flipped from a negative mood to a positive one by supreme artistic skill.